This bachelor thesis in Library and Information science (LIS) aims to examine faculty perceptions of what constitutes and legitimizes an academic library. Academic libraries have experienced immense changes in the last several decades, mainly due to techno­logical advances such as electronic resources, but also the increase in students, teachers and researchers. Many libraries are trying to to provide new services and expertise to remain indispensable to users, which contributes to a fragmented image of academic libraries. This study addressed the following research questions: What are teachers’ and researchers’ expectations of an academic library? How do teachers and researchers think about access and resources? What are teachers’ and researchers’ perceptions of future academic libraries? The study was conducted using a qualitative approach where eight faculty members with experience of being both a teacher and a researcher were interviewed at the Faculty of Health and Society at Malmö University. The data was analyzed using an analytical framework of legitimacy and documentality deriving from Professor Joacim Hansson (2015), but adapted to fit the study. The analytical framework mainly contributed in clarifying which library resources and services can be considered either essential or mostly facilitating. The findings show that faculty perceives the academic library as crucial for their work, especially for giving access to printed or electronic literature, guiding users in how to find and value relevant information, assisting in publishing matters and in education. However, faculty also considers resources and supportive services intrinsically non-essential to teaching and research as relatively important, and truly values the personal contact with the librarians. The results indicate that academic libraries will persist in the foreseeable future, though an informed strategy is necessary.

The purpose of this study is to examine librarians' reasoning regarding ethical dilemmas when meeting users. The study focuses on the librarians' views of their skills in relation to the library environment, ethical problems occurring during their workdays as well as the role of ethics among the professional skills. The empirical material has been collected through conversations with seven librarians at academic libraries in western Sweden. Three scenarios were used to prompt the librarians' reactions. The material was analyzed with the help of thematic analysis metod. One major finding is that librarians find it difficult to differentiate between personal and professional ethics. Another finding is that ethics as a skill should not be overlooked even though more practical competences are valued as more important in the daily work. The study also indicates that training ethical thinking can boost professional status, help problem solving as well as raise the quality level of work.

This Master’s thesis examines library courses, a relatively new form of user education. Our focus is on the pedagogical point-of-views reflected in the text in these library courses. The primary purpose of the study is to analyze the pedagogical discourse displayed in the library courses to determine if the perspective is behavioural, cognitive, constructive or socio cultural. We are investigating if the pedagogical discourse differs from course to course, and if so, how are they different? In addition we aim to find out how the pedagogical discourse in the library courses relates to university websites and governmental and legal texts, at the discursive and social practice level. As a methodological point of departure we use critical discourse, and more specifically, Norman Fairclough’s analytical model. Our conclusion is that the pedagogical discourse is behavioural, cognitive, and constructive. The socio cultural pedagogy is absent. The pedagogical discourse on the discursive and social practice level is cognitive and constructive as was the discourse in two of the library courses. The majority of the library courses had a behavioural pedagogic discourse, which was not found at the discursive or social practice level. We also found that on the discursive and social practice level the socio cultural pedagogic discourse was present. We believe that the library courses make the librarians as educators visible to the public, which could be positive for the pedagogical role of the librarian. From this point of view we find it unfortunate that the majority of the courses contains a behavioural pedagogical discourse, which according to us, mediates an obsolete pedagogical discourse. / Uppsatsnivå: D

In this Bachelor thesis, we examine how the work of the librarian has changed over the past three decades. The research questions focus on the changes in librarians´ roles and working tasks regarding factors like technique, meetings between librarians and visitors and also how to give service to visitors. We have conducted interviews with librarians at university libraries as well as public libraries. In all, there were four interviews. We have also compared the two types of libraries. We have looked closely at these factors: the tasks of the librarians, the skills needed, how the library has been used as a democratic arena, and what kinds of meetings there are among librarians and users of the library. From these themes we have created interview questions, and our analysis is structured according to the themes. We have worked from a theory on different kinds of identities within the profession. This theory is based on the works of Trine Schreiber and Anders Ørom who both are researchers in the discipline. Our conclusion, based on the interviews and also on previous research, is that earlier identified identities can be completed also with a role/identity that can be linked to a need of educating visitors, and a role/identity that regards marketing, i.e. to inform people about the library, its services and activities.

The aim of this bachelor thesis is to investigate how library users experience the space in their library. In understanding the conception of space, we have used Henri Lefebvre's triad of space which he writes about in The Production of Space (1991). We also used different interpreters of Lefebvre to understand his theory better. For this thesis we have interviewed seven users of one academic library and seven users of public libraries in different cities and communities in Sweden. All the libraries we visited were more-open libraries, that means that the libraries offers the patrons to use the libraries even when the librarians isn't there. The interviews had the character go-alongs, that means that we went along with the user in it´s library while we did a semi-structured interview or semi-structured interviews via Zoom. As a complement to the interviews made via Zoom the users drew a map of their library, in the way that they consider it, the method for this is called mental map. It was used as support for remembering the room and to place us in the room. We analyzed the empirics by using Lefebvres aspects spatial practice, representations of space and representational spaces. In our result we could see that the users experience of the library room was very integrated with others or the absence of others. Analyzing it made us understand what Lefebvre ment with social space and how bodies, our own and others influence the experience of space and how we reproduce space by entering a room. We also found that the users felt at home in their libraries and that the spaces filled their needs. The needs were to be on your own, to be in a place that motivates you, or inspires you in different ways. The library seems to be that place and also what the user expects to find in the library.

Denna studie är en undersökning av hur kunskap om arbetet hanteras av personalen och organisationen på Umeå universitetsbibliotek. Fokus ligger på hur kunskap bevaras inom organisationen och förs vidare till de som behöver den. Jag sökte svar på följande frågor: Hur tas kunskapen tillvara när någon lämnar arbetsplatsen? Hur kommer kunskap inom organisation fram till de som behöver den? Vad i organisationen finns det som hjälper eller hindrar kunskapsöverföring? Studien visar att bevarandet av kunskap från de som slutar på arbetsplatsen inte tycks vara viktigt för att verksamheten ska fungera praktiskt men att ett visst kunskapsbevarande ändå hela tiden sker naturligt. Lärande inom organisationen sker i mycket hög grad på ett socialt och informellt sätt genom samspel mellan människor. Inga aktiva insatser görs för att ta tillvara på kunskapen hos erfarna medarbetare men det tycks inte heller behövas för att arbetet ska fungera. Den kunskap som är relevant förs över i det dagliga arbetet. Kunskapen inom organisationen når de som behöver den tack vare att medarbetarna själva ställer frågor och söker upp de som vet, samt i viss mån genom allmänt småprat och olika typer av dokumentation. Kunskapsöverföring underlättas av ett öppet klimat där det är lätt att ställa frågor och där människor generöst delar med sig, samt medarbetarnas frihet att själva lägga upp sitt arbete och därmed söka kunskap på vilket sätt de vill, från vem de vill.

In November 2008 the National Library of Sweden decidedto switch classification system from SAB to Dewey decimalclassification. SAB had then been the main classificationsystem in the whole of the Swedish library field for 87 years.Included into the decision was not just the nationalbibliography but also the research libraries of Sweden. Thisdecision was in alignment with a West European tendency tochange in favor of the internationally well-spreadclassification system Dewey in order to co-operate more inthe cataloguing process. The purpose of this study takenplace in the autumn and winter of 2013 is to examine howlibrarians involved in the transition feel about what differentways the implementation has affected the research libraryorganizations. We also aim to study the librarians’ view onthe involvement of the research libraries into the decision ofthe changeover. In order to do so we apply a theory onorganizational change by Nadler and Tushman (1990, p. 80)that deals with two different dichotomies appropriate to ourstudy; strategic versus incremental change and reactive inopposition to anticipatory change. When these dimensionscome together into a typology we can describe change astuning, adaption, re-orientation or re-creation. The methodwe are using is semi qualitative interviews with fourinformants respectively from two Swedish research libraries.Our findings are that the transition to Dewey merely meantchange as tuning; an incremental and anticipatory transition.No larger organizational change took place according to ourinformants. / Program: Bibliotekarie

This master’s thesis deals with the development of the Swedish library catalogue. The thesis primarily has two purposes. Firstly, it describes how the Swedish library catalogue has developed from its first appearance until today. As the Swedish library sector is very extensive the authors have chosen a few catalogues which they have studied more thoroughly. To find information about the chosen catalogues different literature sources have been used, for example historical texts describing the actual catalogues, biographical and scholarly texts and official reports. Secondly, it examines the changes of the catalogue from an institutional perspective. The new institutional theory is used. This theory is explained and its background and development within different subject fields is described. Especially three different aspects of the theory have been studied and analysed in the text. These are the importance within institutions of operating procedures and rules (for example actors and routines), isomorphic changes and institutions’ importance for social and political control and legitimacy. The authors find that catalogues have appeared in different shapes and have had different aims throughout the centuries. The first catalogues were administered by organizations lead by strong leaders. Isomorphic processes were important to the development and their influences have had different geographic origin during the period. As the development of the library catalogue progresses it appears to be a strong factor in the institutionalization of libraries. / Uppsatsnivå: D

For hundreds of years the scientific journals has been the foremost tool for scholarly communication. Publishing of research results is very important for scientists. Often the research is bound to the university and the research libraries supplies the scientist with all journals needed. The last decades the libraries have seen the costs for subscriptions to journals explode. Commercial publishers often lie behind the mostly unmotivated escalation in price. The purpose of the study has been to analyse which strategies a Swedish research library has to meet this changes in journal costs and electronic development, and also to analyse the development of alternative scientific publishing. We tried to find the answer to these four questions:If you look at scientific journals, what consequences has the last years of economic and electronic development done to the strategies the library has got for collection management?How does the library work with collection management of scientific publications?How do the library weigh different publications and forms of publications (monographs, e-journals and paper journals) against each other?Do the library develop new forms for scientific publishing?The case study shows that the library has developed several different strategies to meet the changes within the formal scientific communication. The libraries have been heavily affected due to the rising expenses. The consequences has been cancellation of subscriptions and lowered grants for monographs. To meet the changes the university has, the last years, developed an own model for publishing scientific publications produced by the researchers at the university. Our conclusion is that the lowered economic resources due to rising subscription fees affects the library negatively and that many of the strategies the library has developed to meet the changes within scientific publishing aims to set free resources or in many cases set free means to finance the journal collection. We believe that the university is on the right track when developing an own model for publication. We also believe that co-operation with other universities have to increase. The communication inside the university will have to improve to raise the knowledge for the role of the library in the university of the future. A possible future role that would strengthen the library's position within the university is to be responsible for the university's scientific publication. To accomplish this more co-operation and communication is needed between library and university. / Uppsatsnivå: D

The purpose of this study was to discover patterns and variations of service requirementsamong various groups of users at the Swedish Academy's Nobel Library. Twenty-nine personswere interviewed and divided into different groups with regard to their purpose of usingthe Nobel Library. The groups of users were members of the Swedish Academy and thepublic. The public were subdivided into the following three groups of users: persons whopursue formalised studies, persons who read as a hobby, persons who work with literature asa profession.The data reveals that the members of the Swedish Academy were very satisfied with theservice at their library and positive to a limited increase of users. Persons who pursue formalisedstudies and persons who work with literature as a profession emphasized that the NobelLibrary is outstanding within its subject field. These two groups also spent much time atother information centres since they often need material dealing with other fields of knowledge.Persons who read as a hobby found almost all the material they need at the Nobel Library.